BY STEPHANIE POON

“Building business on the foundation of trust. Seeking values that benefit others.”   

Fubon Financial Holdings, Taiwan’s second-largest financial holding company, is engaged in the investment consulting, securities, banking, asset management, property and casualty insurance, life insurance, securities financing and futures sectors. It is committed to a whole suite of social responsibility efforts, ranging from corporate governance to compliance to client services to charity, culture, art, and education.

Established in 2001 following legislation permitting financial groups to organize as financial holding companies, Fubon Financial takes pride in its adherence to international corporate governance standards. The company set a new standard by naming four independent directors to its 12-member board, a 33% ratio that is the highest of any domestic financial institution. It also created an audit committee under the board, and an average of 30 visiting international experts per month help in improving transparency and credibility.

Compliance issues also receive serious attention. Subsidiaries’ investment news, financial reports, and financial statistics are all public information, and all new product launches and related marketing materials are subjected to the Legal Affairs Division’s scrutiny. The Secretariat Division, for its part, oversees all legal compliance issues as well as the semi-annual self-auditing process. 

Fubon has gained wide recognition in the industry for its transparency and for adopting international standards of financial practice, including the utilization of Basel II standards for managing credit risk, market risk, operational risk, and fluidity risk. Euromoney in 2008 named Fubon Financial the Best Managed Company in Asia in the banking and finance sector and for the fifth consecutive year cited it as having the Best Corporate Governance in Taiwan’s banking and finance sector. Asiamoney last year presented the company with the Best Corporate Governance Award as well as recognizing it for having Taiwan’s Best Investor Relations. This May, Fubon received four awards from Asiamoney: Best Corporate Governance, Best Corporate Management, Best Corporate Social Responsibility, and Best Investor Relations. 

Another Fubon initiative is to encourage credit card clients to participate in a charity program in which 0.1% of every Fubon-issued credit card transaction is donated to the Fubon Charity Foundation or Fubon Cultural & Education Foundation. Further, an “Exchanging Points for Love” charity program, launched in 2003, allows card-holders users to redeem bonus points as cash donations to fund social welfare efforts and underprivileged groups.

Other client services include various financial-education programs to inculcate a correct view of money from an early age. Customers’ children in grades 4-6 are invited to free seminars and money-management camps, where they are introduced to various financial tools and money management concepts. The firm also offers children’s bank accounts, with amusing names like “Barbie Banker” and “Hot Wheels,” to help foster the habit of savings among youngsters. For the clients themselves, the Fubon Money Management Monthly features information on investment, money management, and financial tools to help readers further their understanding of investment issues.

For corporate clients, Fubon Insurance’s Loss Control Department offers information and training on loss prevention and accident prevention, and its fire-prevention training laboratory provides free education to the public. The lab has developed a “Fire Risk Assessment Quantification System” jointly with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and an “Earthquake Risks Assessment System” in collaboration with National Central University.

The company’s CSR efforts also focus internally on its nearly 26,000 employees and their families by offering educational support, providing financial assistance to those needing emergency help, operating training centers, encouraging volunteerism, and sponsoring family activities. In addition, Fubon Land Development has been promoting the green building concept since 2001. In its own offices, Fubon seeks to follow “sustainable building” guidelines covering energy saving, water conservation, reduced waste, hygiene, health, and environmental protection.

Those who have passed by the Fubon building on the corner of DunHua Road and Civic Boulevard may have noticed frequently changing displays of public art and installations in the adjacent plaza. Through these displays, the Fubon Art Foundation is seeking to integrate art and culture into the public realm. In addition to the Art Foundation, three other foundations – the Fubon Charity Foundation, Fubon Cultural & Education Foundation, and Taipei Fubon Bank Charitable Foundation – employ over 40 personnel to implement non-profit activities. Tsai Wan-tsai used his personal funds to establish three of these foundations in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Celebrating its 21st anniversary this year, the Fubon Charity Foundation, largest of the four foundations, has approximately NT$900 million in assets. Its key programs include “Make Friends with Love,” financing further education for needy children; “Make Friends through Knowledge,” offering tutoring to children in remote areas; and the “Neediest Cases Fund” to give temporary economic relief to those in emergency situations. In 2008, the “Make Friends with Love” campaign raised NT$112.55 million to benefit some 15,600 students, and the Foundation contributed NT$10.91 million in relief funds to aid 1,824 cases of individuals or families facing emergency conditions. Also under the Charity Foundation’s umbrella are ad hoc disaster relief programs for incidents such as the South Asia tsunami and Sichuan earthquake.

The newest of the four foundations, the Taipei Fubon Bank Charitable Foundation, established in 2003, holds NT$30 million in assets. Of the Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank’s profits, 30% go to this foundation to aid Fubon’s “War Against Poverty” for emergency relief for the poor, disabled, and elderly. The anti-poverty programs also include three-year savings plans in which one-to-one matching donations are made upon maturity.

Aimed at promoting physical and emotional well-being among young people as well as education, the NT$175 million Fubon Cultural and Educational Foundation uses various media channels to advocate “wholesome” development. Its activities include public welfare advertising, broadcast programs, and publications on topics such as suicide prevention, media literacy, and financial education. Media literacy promotion encourages young people to think critically and not to be misled by mass media. For Fubon’s 20th Anniversary, the Foundation launched a three-pronged campaign – “Young Voice, Young Life, and Young Career” – to promote three critical areas for youth development: media literacy, life education, and career planning. In light of the recent economic downtown, the Foundation is also working with the Career Consulting Co. to publish “Career Exploration Maps” for 17-year-olds, create a “Fubon Young Career” website, and hold seminars on career development.

The Art Buffet Public Art Exhibitions, launched in 1997 at the start-up of the Fubon Art Foundation, invited artists to install artwork in various Fubon buildings. The Art Foundation also commissions large public art and installation pieces to be featured in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes. In addition, it sponsors about 150 lectures a year aimed at correcting public misconceptions about art and introducing international aesthetics, and organizes international art exchanges, art road shows, and large-scale exhibits. To make art an integral part of daily life, the Foundation launched the “Very Fun Park – Contemporary Art Exhibition of Taipei” and the “Fubon Forums” in 2008. New art programs, such the “Art Show,” give sponsorships to young artists to enable them to take part in the “GEISAI” art fairs organized by prominent Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.

Detailed financial reports on each Fubon Foundation are publicly available on the company’s official site at www.fubon.com.